1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of security measures, more particularly to a network surveillance or computer intrusion detection system or extrusion detection wherein digital information is tied to physical characteristics of a given event.
2. Discussion of the Background
Network administrators are continuously searching for security measures in order to avoid intruders to gain unauthorized access to resources of the networks. A tendency of these intruders, also considered as attackers, is to position a wireless device in proximity of a wireless network to attempt to hack the wireless network in order to gain access to an internal network, or to gain free Internet access.
Further, some computer environments require more security than others. For example, banks, government institutions, and the like need to monitor computer systems for abnormalities in the transactions that take place within their networks. In addition, they need to maintain a perimeter within which confidential transactions take place and are monitored. This is critical for transactions generated by trusted users in a trusted computer system. Since trusted users have privileges that are not normally accessible to a normal user or even a computer intruder which would need the privileges of a trusted user to add, alter or delete data. To maintain order, the administrators of the system need to have numerous security measures in place to deter or, in the event of an incident, to react or collect information about the privileged information event.
FIG. 1 shows relevant art U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,742, incorporated herein as reference, disclosing an intrusion detection system (IDS). The intrusion detection system is limited to detecting the elements within the network and identifying the target system that originated the intrusion. This concept of intrusion detection is limited since there is no data that links the device to a user and the physical area.
Therefore, in the field of security, several procedures for detection are considered in order to prevent intruders from achieving their goal of not being properly identified in the course of their unauthorized activities. For example, some security measures are used for computer surveillance, usually including an intrusion detection system and physical location of computer system, with camera surveillance, which generally comprises camera systems and method for controlling servo mechanisms.
Several public documents discuss the use of camera surveillance incorporating motorized cameras, position encoding devices that can be applied to servos moving a tilt camera, optical encoders, motor controllers with integrated circuit and methods of controlling a motor, system for moving the camera to the desired location for robotic surveillance. For example, please see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,830,388, 4,074,179, 4,491,776, 4,540,925, 4,319,134, 4,899,048, 6,081,091, 4,876,494, 4,925,312, and 6,882,901.
Further, for computer surveillance, several methods for wireless signal location have been proposed. For example see U.S. Application Publication No. 2003/0232598, U.S. Application Publication No. 2006/0281473 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,570,213.
The shortcomings of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0281473 include the fact that it does not deal with the specific method of determining the location of the signal on instances where the location contains obstacles that may affect the readings in the signal's strength which may give a false identification of the signal location. It does not take into account the signal's fluctuations during the spurious events which may alter the signal's strength such as changes in the physical configuration of an office. In other words, it assumes a static and unchanging terrain of measurements that does not have obstacles.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0232598 is directed to the limitations in RSSI (Receive Signal Strength Indicator) measurements where there are “ambiguities and compensations for gain variations with frequency”. This is a shortcoming in which most environments must deal with ambiguities and where there is no way to alter devices which do not belong to the administrator of an environment to compensate for the gain variations. Also one of said applications discloses that it is not necessary to determine absolute location or distance.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,570,213 tries to overcome these limitations by the addition of a clustering algorithm to compensate for the fluctuations in the signal's strength. This again falls short of solving the issue at hand, due to the clustering algorithm itself, which bases its discriminative power in a distance measure to cluster signals together. Sudden changes in signal strength profile (such as walking behind a wall or column or changes in the environment) may yield false positives that are not caught by the clustering algorithm.
Further, as previously mentioned, computer surveillance and camera surveillance tie the computer incident to the computer terminal from which the transaction originated and the person making the transaction. Such determination is necessary to trace the action to a particular user. An example of prior art which ties the computer incident to cameras is U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0125981.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0125981 has several shortcomings. The first shortcoming is that while it mentions that it supports wired communications, the specification is silent as to any means to support the location of wired devices. Another shortcoming is that the arrangement may pull a camera image with a notice which indicates that a potential network intrusion has been detected and security personnel may then manually move a camera. The current statement limits the system because security personnel must be available to move the camera and the system does not automatically operate to zoom in on a specific target. Said limitation is based on the method of detection of the signal in which as stated, the detection device is charged with identifying the general physical location.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method which accurately identifies the intruder's and/or computer's physical location.